History of a Private Life

Every once in a while, you still see them. The person in front of you in the grocery line who waits until the cashier has finished ringing up their order. THEN they start to rummage through their purse looking for... their checkbook.

Then a second search for a pen, and finally they start to write. Eventually they’ll pass it to the cashier who hands them their receipt. But wait… they're not done yet. Now they have to enter the amount in their ledger and return the checkbook to their purse or back pocket. Finally gathering up their belongings, they give way to the rest of us, impatiently clutching debit/credit cards at the ready, hoping to make up for all the lost time.

It’s hard to remember that it wasn’t so long ago that everyone wrote checks or paid cash for nearly everything. After my mother passed away, I spent the next months closing her estate and clearing out my parent’s home. I was astounded to find that my mother had kept every one of her canceled checks, in order, running from the early 1950’s until April 2003, the week before she died. They were in exact numerical order and perfectly notated as to what each check was for. It was in fact, a diary of her life. And in many ways it was also a chronicle of my family’s daily life for nearly five decades.

My father, a Navy pilot, was almost always overseas, and we lived on what the Navy called a monthly “allotment”, which was, in those days, a rather modest amount of money. Those cancelled checks told me how she often bought our school clothes on “layaway”, which meant one could make payments over several months, obtaining the items only after the final payment. 

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What Would Albert Do?

“Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age 18.” Albert Einstein

When I came across this well-known quote by Albert Einstein recently, it struck me that most of us pick our political candidates based on what we perceive as our “common sense.” My common sense, if Albert is right, was formed as the daughter of a fighter pilot during the 50’s and the 60’s. I was witness to the collateral damage inflicted on a military family by the wages of war. From Korea to Vietnam, my father’s career as a warrior was the central fact of our life and all else was secondary.

My early prejudices against war came about from my sense that anything that took my father from me was a bad thing. 

Many of my relatives grew up with their lives intact. Their fathers were home each night. They didn’t have to watch their stoic young mother wait by the phone for a call that often never came. They didn’t habitually watch the chaplain make his way down the street in front of the quarters, holding their breath to see which house he would approach with his sad but predictable news. Yet these are the very people who today are still supporting Bush’s war in Iraq. Were their prejudices the result of pain-free entitlement?

One has to ask how each of our candidates acquired their “common sense." All of them grew up in very different circumstances from one another, and all have had considerably different experiences as adults.  They are each the sum of where they came from and what they have done. As a voter I believe my job is to support the candidate that will have the sense to lead the United States away from our current imperialistic path and back to a constitutional democracy where the welfare of the people is placed ahead of corporate desire for global domination.

 -Citizen Voices blogger Candace Suerstedt is a filmmaker and a mother of three who lives in Coronado.